You’ve been asking for more specifics on our content guidelines and clarity on many of the points. At the end of the day, it is not possible for us to provide a list of everything that is (or is not) allowed on the Episode platform as many scenarios are heavily context-based and will need to be reviewed on an individual story-by-story basis.

What is or is not acceptable on the Episode Platform and in the Episode Community?

Our Official Content Guidelines are as follows:

If stories contain objectionable or offensive content, we may not be able to feature or host them on Episode. Stories must always be appropriate for readers ages 13 or older, which means content would be objectionable if it, among other things:

promotes or depicts excessive violence or assault, including but not limited to sexual assault, murder, and torture against humans or animals;

includes hate speech or content that promotes hatred or discrimination against individuals or groups, on the basis of race, ethnic or national origin, religion, marital status, disability, gender, age, or sexual orientation;

promotes suicide, self-harm, abuse, or bullying;

promotes excessive alcohol, tobacco or drug use;

promotes gambling, betting or casinos;

portrays adult themes, including pornographic content, nudity, or prostitution;
slanders or libels a person or third party;

includes excessive use of profanity or sexually explicit phrases;
advertises for outside products or services, including but not limited to website links, reviews, and promotional language;

excessively promotes the use of firearms, explosives, and ammunition; or

excessively promotes a political agenda.

In addition, by publishing your story, you agree that it does not include any content that infringes the intellectual property rights or rights of publicity or privacy of any third party. This may include using any of the following without permission:

any works of authorship of other parties, including excerpts or passages taken from literary works, television or film;

any trademarks or references to corporate or business names; or

any references to real persons or places.

To clarify, let’s break it down.

Censor Bar Use, Nudity, and Sexual Content:

Depiction of sex (or anything suggesting that sex is occurring at that moment) in any form, including but not limited to, gyrating bodies, oral sex, or moaning/groaning is not allowed.

Explicit details of what is happening or has happened off-screen is also not allowed.

Any nudity on cover art is strictly not allowed.

Frontal nudity is allowed in a story if it is not excessive, only used in non-sexual situations, and always accompanied with censor bars or scenery to censor.

Posterior nudity in a story is only allowed in a tasteful and non-sexual context.

References to Drugs & Alcohol:

No graphic / explicit / detailed descriptions or glorification of the use of drugs / alcohol.

Characters can consume alcohol, tobacco or marijuana as well as make references to these drugs.

Characters can make references to harder drugs (cocaine, heroin, ecstasy, etc.) but they cannot be depicted or consumed on screen.

If a story references characters consuming these substances, it cannot be glorified or encouraged.

Characters can be addicts or addicts can be referenced provided the representation is respectful, contextually appropriate and doesn’t glorify being an addict.

Ex: they can say a suicide / self harm happened, but cannot have in-depth descriptions of the details, injuries or physical sensations.

Suicide and self harm cannot be depicted as feeling good, being a relief, or as a means of escape.

Creators cannot show blood, gore or bodies resulting from a suicide.

Ex: blood dripping down the wrists, cuts, gunshot wounds or a body hanging in a noose, etc.

Hate Speech:

Hate speech - in any form - is not allowed. Specifically, references of – including but not limited to – any slur made on the basis of race, ethnic or national origin, religion, marital status, disability, gender, age, or sexual orientation.

References to persons who promote hate, and notorious political figures are only allowed in historical context and passing reference to communicate setting, era, theme, and / or time.

Promotion or honoring of hate symbols is not allowed at all.

Advertising/Promotion:
*Authors may promote their story, Episode related website and / or Episode social media account.

They may not advertise or promote other services or platforms on the Episode services.

Songs, Brands, Celebrities and Children:

Songs and Brands

One-time use of a very limited amount of song lyrics may be allowed. Characters may sing these or they can appear coming out of radios, etc.

Story cards, overlays or backgrounds cannot have children (under the age of 16) be the focus. A parent holding an infant is okay. The focus is the parent. Children playing on a playground would also be okay as the focus is the playground. A close up of a child on a swing would not be.

If we find that a story does not conform to our Content Guidelines listed above, we will contact the author via their portal account email and may suspend and/or remove that story from the platform. Authors who repeatedly violate Content Guidelines may be temporarily or permanently suspended from all or part of our platform.

Hopefully this clarifies some of the questions and concerns we receive around what is appropriate in our app. As always, please reach out to our Support Desk with any questions you have about content within your story. We’re here to help!

Thank you all for your understanding and for continuing to write for Episode!

Love,

The Episode Team

UPDATED 02/20/2019
Thank you for all your feedback! These are some of the points that we’ve received the most feedback on-

While we appear “12+” on the Apple Store and “Teen” on the GooglePlay store, our platform is intended for teenagers 13+. In fact, players under the age of 13 are prohibited from using our service. If there is a case where you know about an underage player, please report them, and they will be removed from our platform.

Stories cannot feature main characters that are under the age of 13.
Additionally, we do not allow characters between the ages of 13 to 16 to have sexual relationships of any kind. They may state that they have a romantic interest (such as a crush/significant other), but cannot engage in sexual activity. If you find a story with any of the aforementioned content, please report it immediately to us here.

We do not have the ability to display a story before review, and a story after review without the author’s permission – as every author owns their own written story. Additionally, we are committed to respecting the privacy of players accounts.

As a platform we are not prepared to remove a story simply because it’s unliked or makes us uncomfortable if it doesn’t violate our guidelines.

Hate speech - in any form - is not allowed. Specifically, references of – including but not limited to – any slur made on the basis of race, ethnic or national origin, religion, marital status, disability, gender, age, or sexual orientation.
References to persons who promote hate, and notorious political figures are only allowed in historical context and passing reference to communicate setting, era, theme, and / or time.
Promotion or honoring of hate symbols is not allowed at all.

I definitely agree with all of the other guidelines, but I do have a question: does this mean that we cannot have a story in which the protagonist/MC experiences racism? I would love to see stories which depict racism as a bad thing and attempt to find ways to deal with it appropriately without promoting hate speech.

For example, I would love to write a story which is about 60s civil rights, or the struggles that the LGBT community may go through. Would these be prohibited?

We worked closely with Cameron Dallas to have him appear in an Episode Official story, much like how we did with Demi.

Swear words are allowed, as long as they are not excessively used. If you feel like you may be crossing the line, I would recommend trimming down the swear words or submitting a story review request via a ticket.

I definitely agree with all of the other guidelines, but I do have a question: does this mean that we cannot have a story in which the protagonist/MC experiences racism? I would love to see stories which depict racism as a bad thing and attempt to find ways to deal with it appropriately without promoting hate speech.

For example, I would love to write a story which is about 60s civil rights, or the struggles that the LGBT community may go through. Would these be prohibited?

These are very good questions, and we do not want to block you from working on or exploring sensitive stories. We agree that there are stories that need to be told.

With that, we would recommend submitting for the story review if you feel like it may be portraying strong themes of racism or abuse. That way we can work with you on portraying these cases appropriately.

Depends whose watermark it is I think, if you have made/got somebody to make it or the person gave you permission to use it, I think it will be fine. Although, if it’s copyrighted or something then you may not be able to. If Episode has approved it, then I guess it’s fine to use? I don’t know a lot about it all, but I hope this has helped a bit